Poor Sportsmanship...

If you follow me on Twitter (especially during the Olympics) you will note that on numerous occasions I wanted to "stick it to the USA"...

These two articles by Star-Telegram reporter Gil Lebreton illustrate in part why I feel this way (the other part being I know that the USA is Canada's biggest competitor in many things, and like I cheer for the Canucks over the Flames, I cheer for Canada over the USA - call me crazy but I kind of like it when my own country wins)...

It isn't that I hate Americans. I happen to like a great deal of them. But it is ignorant articles like the ones above that make my blood boil. I can't even respond to the articles. I can't... because I have decided to play the high road as a Canadian and let you decide for yourselves if you think these articles should even be thought of, little own actually written and published in a newspaper for all to see.

Cause you know... the Canadian flag looks just like a Nazi swastika. In fact, every time I see one I want to reach my arm out and shout "Heil Hitler". And of course... I didn't see a single American flag in the crowd - ever - because, you know - this was Canada's games and all we did was run around waving flags willy-nilly through the streets (I mean... not just when we won our Olympic record setting 14 gold medals). Just like of course I never saw an American flag in the crowd in Salt Lake or Atlanta - cause they were the "world's games" when they were there... and we know that all Americans cheered for every athlete equally - they didn't focus on their own. At all (okay... maybe that was me responding... but trust me - I didn't say what I really wanted to say... I contained myself).

End rant.

On a more positive note on Canada (to prove that I really just didn't look for a craptastic article) - check out NBC's Brian Williams' - not to be confused with CTV's Brian Williams - great article... Leaving Behind a Thank-You Note.

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Comments

The guy that wrote that article is an idiot. Unfortunately, the media is full of them, and they're infuriating as an American too.

We know that the Olympics are never the "world's games." There is always a focus on the host country and that only makes sense. I will say however, that I think the rest of the world might have felt a bit left out of the celebration and that's where some of this coming from (not excusing or defending what the idiot wrote, he's definitely an ignorant whinybutt). Personally, I kind of got the feeling that Canada didn't really want the rest of the world to celebrate with them, that American support of Canadian athletes wasn't "allowed." No, Americans don't cheer for every athlete equally and we really don't expect anyone else to either. But we don't always cheer for only Americans, sometimes we would like to cheer for our neighbors too. I might be the only one, but I felt that wasn't always welcomed.

First of all, thank you for posting this. I hadn't read all but one of these articles. It is so infuriating so read others painting a bad image of the games. I was here. It was incredible. We were welcoming hosts. We were kind and polite and apologized more than necessary. I cheered for Joannie and then cheered for Yu-Na - she is amazing and deserved that gold. It was a Canadian party because the Olympics were being hosted in Canada. But the world was our VIP guest.

I e-mailed LeBreton after reading his nasty column on Monday. He's starting to sound more contrite, but it's probably just a front he's putting up... His parting sentence (in the e-mail he sent me back) kind-of suggests he might not change his mind, despite the 1936 reference fiasco: "There were many exciting and memorable moments in the Vancouver Olympics, and I hope these are the ones that will linger when the cheers of those three weeks finally fade."